Kate & I are headed south this evening, with an overnight at an as-yet undetermined location in Illinois. We've tended to do St. Louis in whirlwind fashion and this trip will be no exception, as we'll be back home by Saturday.

The main reason for the trip is Ruth Asawa: Life's Work at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation. I've been interested in Ruth Asawa's work because:

How could I not be? I saw just this very small installation at the de Young Museum in San Francisco in 2010 and was positively smitten from that very moment. So intriguing.

Kate's familiar because her Master's thesis at Edinburgh was about Black Mountain College, where Ruth Asawalived/worked/studied with the likes of Josef Albers (another favorite) and Buckminster Fuller for a few years.

I mean... REALLY!

It's just amazing. I'm very excited to see much, much more of her work. And since we won't likely meet in St. Louis and enjoy this show together, here is a pretty cool link to View an Asawa Installation at ruthasawa.com (and a million other fascinating things to click on there).

We will also visit the St. Louis Art Museum to see Kehinde Wiley: Saint Louis, and have tickets to The Hip Hop Nutcracker, and hope to get over to see the Christmas display at Anheuser-Busch (which is walking distance from our Airbnb, so very likely!). It would be interesting to see how the holiday display at the Botanical Garden has changed from last year, and it would be great to catch some jazz/blues somewhere... we'll see. Whirlwind.

_ _ _ _ _

I can't let this day pass, it seems, without acknowledging this accomplishment...

Isn't Parcheesi everyones favorite project? It's mine! I love the whirlwind and look forward to hearing all about it! I am amazed at an artist who could work for hours and hours and hours and so perfectly create the shapes and patterns with tiny wire. Stunning.

This was the second audio book that I've "read," and I enjoyed it very much -- love a memoir read by the author. I've enjoyed Anthony Bourdain on TV and though I'm sure I'd have heard his voice in my head as I read the words, it was trul...